Man held in Estonia over body of producer found in Kew garden
A FUGITIvE wanted on suspicion of killing a French filmmaker in London was arrested in his homeland yesterday.
Police held a 32-year-old man in the Estonian capital Tallinn.
He left Britain on Wednesday last week – the day that Laureline Garcia-Bertaux, 34, was found dead.
She was discovered buried in a shallow grave in the garden of her £ 400,000 ground floor flat in the wealthy suburb of Kew, SouthWest London.
Friends and colleagues had reported her missing when she didn’t turn up for work at a PR firm on March 5.
A European Arrest Warrant was issued on Tuesday and the suspect was apprehended yesterday – just 24 hours later – in what detectives believe is a record fastest time for such a procedure.
Scotland Yard murder squad officers flew out to Interpol’s head office in The Hague earlier this week to track the suspect and have been working closely with Estonian police for days, it is understood.
Miss Garcia-Bertaux, who lived alone, disappeared on Sunday, March 3, after telling friends she planned to go for a coffee with a man, believed to be a ‘ charismatic’ vet. It is unclear if the meeting took place.
However, a neighbour has claimed she saw Miss GarciaBertaux having an animated conversation with an unidentified man in the garden that day.
Police initially treated the case as a missing person inquiry until she was found strangled last Wednesday. The suspect, who has not been named, left the
country the same day. Yesterday he was detained on suspicion of murder in Tallinn just after noon. Extradition proceedings are now under way to bring him back to the UK.
Originally from Aix- en-Provence, Miss Garcia- Bertaux moved to the UK in 2009 and graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London.
She worked on films starring Sheridan Smith and Dame Joan Collins, who paid tribute to her, saying she was ‘shocked by the horrifying news’ of her death.
In a statement, colleagues described Miss Garcia-Bertaux as ‘a wonderfully creative, caring and charismatic woman’.
It is understood that she had been in a long-term relationship until January last year, but she was single at the time of her death, friends said.
She had written on an online dating profile that she wanted to meet a man to have ‘banter with’, and described herself as a ‘fairly normal person with a little dose of crazy and creativity’.
Her death has devastated her family, and her mother Frédérique Bertaux posted on Facebook a touching selfie of herself with her daughter following her death.
A Met spokesman said: ‘A 32year- old man was arrested in Estonia today at 12.25pm on suspicion of the murder of Laureline Garcia-Bertaux. A murder investigation led by the Met’s homicide and major crime command continues apace.’
‘Creative and charismatic’